Distractibility from childhood to adulthood
Results summary
Preliminary behavioral and EEG results from this study indicate that voluntary orienting, anticipatory and sustained attention processes are still maturing in children from 6 to 13 years of age. The EEG findings suggest that the maturation of attentional anticipation and preparation is supported by a shift from a reactive to a proactive strategy. Distraction and arousal effect linked to the distractor occurrence in the CAT decrease from 6yo to adulthood. Increased behavioral distraction in children would, at least partially, result from immature TD reorientation processes. Furthermore, the development of distractibility is associated with an increase in motor control between 6 and 11yo and a decrease in impulsivity between age 14 and adulthood, probably in line with the reactive to proactive shift in cognitive control.
Taken together, these results suggest that distractibility in children is supported by immature TD and BU attention processes. Further analysis of the EEG data will help to better understand which brain maturation processes underlie the behavioral development of distractibility during childhood.
Behavioral and EEG studies
Distractibility using the CAT paradigm
Bidet-Caulet, A., Bottemanne, L., Fonteneau, C., Giard, M.-H., & Bertrand, O. (2015). Brain dynamics of distractibility: Interaction between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms of auditory attention. Brain Topography, 28(3), 423–436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-014-0354-x
Hoyer, R. S., Elshafei, H., Hemmerlin, J., Bouet, R., & Bidet-Caulet, A. (2021). Why Are Children So Distractible? Development of Attention and Motor Control From Childhood to Adulthood. Child Development, 92(4), e716–e737. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13561
Hoyer, R., Pakulak, E., Bidet-Caulet, A., & Karns, C. (in revision). The development of attention and distractibility in preschool children from higher and lower socioeconomic status backgrounds. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.06.438161
Hoyer R.S., Riedinger M., Abdoun, O., Bouet R., Elshafei H., Bidet-Caulet A. (in prep.) When do we become more prone to distraction? Behavioral evolution of the different components of distractibility with aging.
Masson, R., & Bidet-Caulet, A. (2019). Fronto-central P3a to distracting sounds: An index of their arousing properties. NeuroImage, 185, 164–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.041
Other paradigms
Voluntary orienting
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Näätanen, R. (1992). Attention and brain function. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Padilla, M. L., Pfefferbaum, A., Sullivan, E. V., Baker, F. C., & Colrain, I. M. (2014). Dissociation of preparatory attention and response monitoring maturation during adolescence. Clinical Neurophysiology, 125, 962–970. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2013.10.012
Sustained attention
Parasuraman, R., Nestor, P. G., & Greenwood, P. (1989). Sustained-attention capacity in young and older adults. Psychology and Aging, 4, 339–345. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.4.3.339
Petton, M., Perrone-Bertolotti, M., Mac-Auliffe, D., Bertrand, O., Aguera, P.-E., Sipp, F., . . . Lachaux, J.-P. (2019). BLAST: A short computerized test to measure the ability to stay on task. Normative behavioral data and detailed cortical dynamics. Neuropsychologia, 134, 107151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107151
Distraction
Horvath, J., Czigler, I., Birkas, E., Winkler, I., & Gervai, J.(2009). Age-related differences in distraction and reorientation in an auditory task. Neurobiology of Aging, 30, 1157–1172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2007.10.003
Olesen, P. J., Macoveanu, J., Tegner, J., & Klingberg, T. (2007). Brain activity related to working memory and distraction in children and adults. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 1047–1054. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhl014
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Wetzel, N., & Schr€oger, E. (2014). On the development of auditory distraction: A review: Development of auditory distraction. PsyCh Journal, 3, 72–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.49
Ruhnau, P., Wetzel, N., Widmann, A., & Schröger, E.(2010). The modulation of auditory novelty processing by working memory load in school age children and adults: A combined behavioral and event related potential study. BMC Neuroscience, 11, 126. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-11-126
Phasic arousal
Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. (2005). An integrative theory of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function: Adaptive gain and optimal performance. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 403–450. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135709
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Max, C., Widmann, A., Kotz, S. A., Schröger, E., & Wetzel, N. (2015). Distraction by emotional sounds: Disentangling arousal benefits and orienting costs. Emotion, 15, 428–437. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039041
Wetzel, N., Schröger, E., & Widmann, A. (2016). Distraction by novel and pitch-deviant sounds in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01949
Impulsivity
Barratt, E. S., & Patton, J. H. (1983). Impulsivity: Cognitive, behavioral, and psycholophysiological correlates. In M. Zuckerman (Ed.), Biological bases of sensation seeking, impulsivity and anxiety (pp. 77–122). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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